The Liebichwein barrel shed has collected many oak casks of various sizes that house liquid gold. Ron and Janet Liebich are proud to continue the great tradition of ageing and blending fortified wines. Only a few decades ago, Muscat and Tawny used to dominate the Barossa wine scene.
Liebichwein host an annual consumer fortified wine judging competition to celebrate these classic styles and engage with our passionate customer base who manage their own barrels. Previous competition entries have included super-syrupy rare tawny, rare sweet Tokay-like flavours and quite young Tawny blends. All wines entered will get a professional evaluation by Ron and an experienced judging panel including his daughter Briony, an experienced sensory analyst and qualified wine educator. Entrants will receive tasting notes and feedback for each wine entered.
Wine Entry Information
Entries are open Australia-wide as long as a 200mL wine sample can be sent without spilling a precious drop. All entries must be received by 4th September 2023 for judging (entry fee $10 per wine). Entries can be dropped off at Liebichwein during cellar door hours or posted to the winery in a well-sealed clean glass bottle/jar with secure packaging.
Competition Results 2023
Thanks to all entrants from across Australia, some so keen they sent us multiple samples. All wines were of consistent quality with a few jumping out to claim top Gold medals. The top prize winner took home a dipstick trophy with personalised engraving. Congratulations to Allan Gadd!
It’s wonderful to see such passion for maturing fortifieds in our wine loving community.
Announcing the winners of the prestigious “Best Home Barrel Blend” for the 2018 competition. Judging took place in September with three expert judges deliberating samples of Tawny and white fortified wines sent in from our customer base.
Wines were very high standard with very little to pick on in terms of faults. All entries were worthy of medals. The winning wines showed complex flavours, great depth and balance. Entrants gained Ron?s specialist advice on how to improve their blend, which we believe is the most important outcome of this event.
Thanks to everyone who entered and helps support our business. We are only too happy to help you with our complete range of fortifieds to achieve the best results for your barrels.
Congratulations to all winners!
First Place: John Ridenour
Second Place: Martin Kennedy
Third Place: Filippo Pizzino
Ron Liebich’s winemaking comments:
Smaller barrels need to be “worked” to achieve best results. It is ok to have great rancio characters, the high ratio of wood in small barrels to wine means adding younger wine at times, preferably with minimum wood age (such as Ruby Fortified) as a portion of the addition. Youthful fortifieds are perfect for blending out excess wood tannin and maintaining fruit wood balance. The gold winners had the best balance of fruit and oak integration, indicating good management and? patience.
We’re absolutely thrilled with results from the Barossa Wine Show 2018. Ron has outdone himself picking up a Trophy for Museum Fortified for the second year in a row. Rare Tawny was crowned Best Museum Red Fortified. Last year saw Rare Semillon get a similar honour in the Best Museum White Fortified Class.
All entries from around the Barossa region were such high calibre, we’re proud to be among the same company. Congratulations to all other medal and trophy winners.
Other Liebichwein medal winners:
Rare Frontignac = SILVER (yet to be released)
2018 Vintage Fortified Petit Verdot (baby VP – yet to be released) = BRONZE
Ron Liebich has always supported the local wine show. Each year he diligently prepares samples and enters to get feedback from experienced judges from the wine industry.
The Barossa Wine Show judges were delighted in Liebichwein fortifieds. The 2017 competition awarded the following awards:
Gold medal and overall Trophy for Best Museum White Fortified – Liebich Rare Semillon
Grape stomping, street parade, scarecrows, chocolate and wine?indulgence were just some of the variety of activities Liebichwein were involved with over?the five days of the Barossa Vintage Festival?held in April 2015.
Cellar Door was run off its feet with people booking in for the Fortified and Chocolate Experience. Visitors enjoyed a journey of flavour?through four varieties of premium fortified wines ranging from two to twenty years old. Wines were matched to four homemade chocolate truffles. A rare treat!
Once again we?entered a float in the?famous Barossa Festival Parade, the?longest street parade in the southern hemisphere.?Our daughter Briony and son-in-law Damian proudly dressed?the winery float?in a ‘Classic Old Barossa’ theme complete with scarecrow (Grandpa “Gus” Braunack) and classic 1960’s beach buggy. See more photos
Grape juice was flying as the iconic grape treading event returned for its biennial appearance at the?Festival. Young and old climbed into the bins and eagerly stomped the grapes.?Liebichwein have proudly sponsored this event for 10 years.?Ron is now converting the well-stomped Grenache juice into a smooth young Tawny. See results here
We are keen to wear and share a T shirt during the 2015 vintage that fits with the theme of harvest and our involvement with grape treading at the Barossa Vintage Festival.
We were inspired by this metal tin which resides in cellar door and always attracts attention.?It can be a new image to fit with similar text or something completely original for a slogan and image that shows exactly what our name means – “I LOVE WINE”
Please offer colour suggestions too!
We would love to see your creative ideas to help us select a winning design to use. The design should be suited to both male and female style shirts.
The winner will receive:
A T Shirt printed with their winning design
A dozen Liebich Old Vine Shiraz (valued at $300)
So how do you enter?
WIN A DOZEN SHIRAZ!
Download the entry form using the link at the bottom of this page.
Post your design to us at:? T Shirt Design, Liebichwein, PO Box 916, Rowland Flat SA 5352
Drop it?into Cellar Door in Rowland Flat
Scan and email?it to us at: info@www.bizeezcomms.com/liebichwein